- management preservation programmes be put in place to achieve their goals in cost effective, timely, holistic, proactive and accountable ways.
These strategies as strongly believed by Rosenthal et al (2005), if they are
properly put in place, will enable digital materials in the library to survive threats
that attack system‟s contents.
exploitation. Legal and practical frameworks for authenticity are crucial to prevent manipulation or intentional alteration of digital heritage. Both require that the content, functionality of files and documentation be maintained to the extent necessary to secure an authentic record.
Another complex issue concerning copyright is the copyright of software required to access digital files. A dazzling array of rights may be associated with websites combining mixed materials from various sources agreement on the principle of “the right to copy for preservation” still has to be developed worldwide. Furthermore, while valuable initiatives have been undertaken in many countries to preserve digital materials including websites, there are still limits to these efforts in terms of international standards. Most times, it may be difficult to tell where digital materials come from, making it hard to decide who is responsible for their preservation and with whom to negotiate the rights required by preservation programmes.
However, in preservation practices of digital materials, it is important to consider right issues. This is so because; right issues may influence selection decisions.
Preservation programmes according to the UNESCO (2003) digital preservation
guidelines often select materials that are still subject to rights, but generally
would not select material if rights were so restrictive that arrangement for giving
access at some future stage cannot be negotiated. If the material can never be made available for use, or if necessary preservation steps cannot be taken, there is little point in selecting it as a digital heritage material.
Meanwhile, the UNESCO charter (2003) digital preservation guidelines have outlines some basic rights that are required for preservation activities. In order to achieve continuity of digital heritage, preservation programme must:
- Obtain and hold material, usually involving making copies - Make further copies for preservation purposes
- If necessary, bypass devices used by producers to limit access and prevent copying
- Decide what materials and what aspects of materials should be preserved - Add metadata
- Modify file structures and file names if necessary
- Use whatever means that are available at the time to preserve accessibility - Provide managed access for authorized users
However, obtaining permissions to cover these activities may be difficult, the reasons are not far-fetched because:
- Producers and other right owners may be unwilling to give permission - Rights of access and rights of privacy and confidentiality are often in
tension
- In an environment of fragmented or collaborative creation of digital materials, it may be hard to identify or negotiate with all rights owners - The legal position may be ambiguous, as many jurisdictions are still in the
process of clarifying legal frameworks of rights and how they should be managed
- In dealing with globally networked materials it may be even unclear which legal jurisdiction applies; that in which material was produced, or published, or captured for preservation, or stored, or accessed – all of which may be different.
Nevertheless, there are some legal frameworks in practical issues that allow preservation programmes to assume the right to collect and preserve specific digital materials. The most common of them include:
- Legal deposit or records management legislation - Organizational rules governing corporate information - Contractual requirements to deposit data
- Conditions of grants, awards, employment or membership of organizations - Rights inherited by one organization from another
- Negotiated or purchased license agreements
- Rights implied by voluntary submission of material to a preservation
programme
- Capturing and storing of materials that are publicly available, free access websites without seeking prior approval.
Yuan Li and Meghan (2011), in firm support to the UNESCO (2003) digital preservation guidelines also posited that copyright and intellectual property are also important issues to consider when thinking about the stewardship of scholarly materials. Acquiring the rights from content contributors and copyright holders to distribute the content freely is an integral part of collecting content for digital materials in the library. However, securing the necessary rights and agreements to preserve the digital materials is also important, because implementing long term digital preservation strategies such as migrating to new formats in the future, may necessarily involve changing the content to some extent. Since preservation and access go hand in hand, it is important therefore to get the necessary agreements in place with content contributors and copyright holders to preserve and provide access to submitted content.
